The present invention is related generally to interior cabin configurations of an aircraft. More particularly, the present invention is related to a system for determining an existing interior cabin configuration of an aircraft.
Aircraft systems such as in-flight entertainment and cabin services often require the correlation of passenger seat location with the relative location of ancillary functions, such as reading lights or attendant call indicators. The illumination of an attendant call indicator, for example, allows airline cabin crewmembers to determine which passenger has requested service. The passenger seat and the ancillary functions are typically members of separate electronic systems, and are usually not physically connected to each other. Often, these separate systems coordinate the command signals issued from the seats with the control of their corresponding ancillary functions through use of a software database. This is also true of any monument in the passenger cabin where a command is issued by that monument, intending to control a separate function. The term “monuments” refers to any structure that is fastened to the floor of an interior cabin of an aircraft. Some examples of a monument are a passenger seat, a lavatory, and a partition.
Seats within an interior cabin of an aircraft are typically configured in columns. Each column is connected to a power line and a serial communication line. The serial communication line is connected between a central controller and a first or front seat. Additional serial communication lines are linked between the first seat and each adjacent seat in a particular column. Currently, each seat contains an identical electronic module and does not initially have an electronic address. When the seat modules are initially powered, a central controller issues an address to the first module in the seat column. This first module then sends the address associated with the first seat, incremented by one, to the next adjacent seat module in that column. This process repeats until all seat modules in that column have been assigned an address relative to a neighboring module. The address information for each seat is transmitted to a central controller via serial communication links between the seats. The inclusion of the serial communication lines increases system hardware complexity and costs.
Currently, the seat location databases are in essence manually created. The databases manually correlate seat positions with their corresponding ancillary functions. The central controller responsible for the seats receives commands from their subordinate seat modules. The central controller then issues a command to another separate central controller responsible for controlling the desired ancillary functions.
Although the central controllers correlate seat location based on seat order to determine an interior cabin configuration, neither controller is capable of determining the absolute position of each seat. The physical alignment of ceiling mounted passenger service items, such as reading lights, attendant call lights, air-conditioning controls, oxygen masks, etc. is performed manually. This alignment procedure is time consuming and error prone due to human intervention.
In addition, current aircraft are required to satisfy various stringent safety and operating requirements in various operating conditions. Thus, when an aircraft is altered, such as when a configuration of interior cabin monuments is changed, many aircraft systems are typically redemonstrated and reevaluated to prove satisfaction of these requirements. This redemonstration and reevaluation is time consuming and costly. It is therefore desirable to develop an aircraft system that can accommodate foreseeable modifications to monuments and passenger service units while maintaining satisfaction of the above-stated operating requirements.
Thus, there exists a need for an improved system for detecting a configuration of an interior cabin of an aircraft.